People Have The Power – Details, episodes & analysis

"It's really pretty frustrating to see this shit keep happening and see racism fucking out there. It's a part of who this country is," an impassioned Ivan Neville says on this week's People Have The Power. In an incredibly powerful episode, Neville talks about how racism directly influenced the  new Dumpstaphunk album, 'Where Do We Go From Here.' 

In the midst of the pandemic of the last year, Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee found her musical bliss again while making the band's new album. 'The Bitter Truth.' "I feel a new sense of belonging where I am.," Lee  tells Steve Baltin on this week's People Have The Power. 

One of the smartest and most literate songwriters in music, National frontman Matt Berninger is one of the only artists who could make the connection between Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B. "WAP" and Robert Mapplethorpe.

"Robert Mapplethorpe was using art and beauty and photographs to try to get people around him to understand him and specifically even if 90 percent of the photos were of flowers some of them were about very graphic sexual things from Robert Mapplethorpe expressing a sexual side of himself and that is what 'WAP' is doing," Berninger explains on this week's People Have The Power. 

It's just one of the many amazing insights from Berninger in this fascinating conversation.  

According to Gavin Rossdale, there are two artists who have shaped the writing in his multi-platinum, 20-plus year career. In this latest episode of People Have The Power.  Rossdale explains to host Steve Baltin how he drew upon the “underlying sexual tension” from Patti Smith and the overall influence the Sex Pistols had on him. “I’ve never made a record that I don’t reflect on the lyrics and then listen to the Sex Pistols.”  

The lead singer of Jane’s Addiction and founder of Lollapalooza, Perry Farrell is an alternative icon. On this week’s People Have The Power Farrell joins host Steve Baltin to discuss three decades of Lolla, the role of music in the pandemic and his wide-ranging playlist of protest songs, from 1940’s “This Land Is Your Land” to 2020’s “State Of The Union.”

“For a woman to be singing ‘WAP’ you feel empowered. It makes you feel good as a woman, it makes you want to show off, it makes you feel sexy, it makes you feel empowered. And as a female artist that's all I would hope to do for my female fans. And they did that,” Grammy nominee Noah Cyrus says of her first protest song, 2020’s song of the year, “WAP.” Cyrus discusses that and so much more on this week’s People Have The Power podcast with Steve Baltin. 

Though a legend and icon for the last five decades, Toots Hibbert remained truly humble. "I can't believe that people still respect the true words of Toots And The Maytals," he told host Steve Baltin when he joined the People Have The Power podcast this past August, just a month before his death September 11. Today, December 8, on what would have been Hibbert's 78th birthday, People Have The Power is proud to share this conversation and for people to hear Hibbert in his own words. 

For Cam, like many of us, she has had a social awakening in 2020. And that permeates her choice of protest songs, including Cat Stevens’ “Miles From  Nowhere,” which she says takes her on a journey, and Tracy Chapman’s powerful “Behind The Walls.” Speaking about the songs she chose she says, “I guess we gotta keep singing them until they’re no longer relevant.”

Ben Harper’s love and knowledge of music is as impressive as his long-running career. He shows why on the latest People Have The Power as he takes host Steve Baltin on a geographical and historical tour of his favorite musical cities and artists, from John Coltrane and John Fahey to Bob Marley that have shaped his work.

Talking about Nina Simone with host Steve Baltin on this week's People Have The Power, Fitz And The Tantrums’ Noelle Scaggs says, “It's crazy when you're talking about how they're still relevant today and you're talking about this song in particular and she's talking about second-class housing and second-class schooling, basically treating African-Americans like we're fools.”